Across the country, vandalism to private and public property will escalate to an amount approaching $20 billion in damage this year. Here we will discuss what vandalism is and how you can protect your car and personal property.
The Merriam Webster dictionary says that Vandalism is the “willful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property.”
The U.S. Department of Justice's white paper on vandalism tells us that vandalism includes “smashing mailboxes, trashing someone’s property, drawing graffiti on public places, breaking windows, and destroying abandoned buildings.” They go on to say that vandalism creates unease in neighborhoods and communities driving up insurance costs and taxes for everybody.
We can think of no better example of the fall of a once great city than Detroit that was plagued by economic downturns and vandalism.
One of the best ways to reduce vandalism is to quickly remove graffiti as soon as it is spotted.
If graffiti is removed within 24 to 48 hours, that is the best way to prevent it from happening again. For private citizens, vandalism to your car or home is more the issue. But the same idea applies. Nothing can devalue your home or neighborhood faster than leaving graffiti for others to see.
As we saw in the article entitled Whose Job Is It to Protect You And Your Family? law enforcement officials cannot be everywhere so the responsibility for protecting your family and your property falls on you.
It is unfortunate that burglary and vandalism occur with such frequency that often law enforcement officials cannot even respond to calls for help. They just don’t have the resources. So it is incumbent upon homeowners to protect their property.
How do you catch the bad guys?
As you can imagine, almost all vandalism events occur at night under cover of darkness most often when the homeowners are asleep. We are going to suggest a couple of tools that may not prevent the act of vandalism from taking place but will take images of the Vandals so that they may be caught.
Law enforcement officials tell us if they have an image of the bad guy, the chances of catching him improve by at least 50%.
Our article entitled Why Are Property Crimes On The Decline? explains that social media such as Facebook and Twitter as well as home security devices such as hidden cameras or this four camera home security system with night vision that can take video of the perpetrators are the way of the future in crime preventionHere is an example of a hidden camera that can operate up to one year in standby mode on a single battery charge. It is disguised as a fuse box so it can be placed outdoors and operates in areas where you do not want to run wires or don’t have power making it the perfect spy camera. It can operate on motion activated, standard or overwrite recording modes and can stream live footage to your phone. It is water resistant and requires minimal light such as a full moon. Depending on how you direct the camera you can protect your home or your car or both.
Has your home ever been vandalized? Were the police of any help? Please share your experience. We want to hear your thoughts.